Attacking ads not good for US prez campaign: Rove

Published: Monday, September 15, 2008, 17:13 [IST]

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Washington, Sept.15 : Karl Rove, the man credited with getting President Bush elected twice, has warned both Democrats and Republicans that they are making a mistake by using advertising to attack their respective candidates.

Political strategist Karl Rove said Obama may not have consciously wanted to attribute Palin with porcine traits when he used the "lipstick on a pig" analogy to describe the McCain campaign's policies, but it sure looked like "a deliberate slap" at the Alaska governor.

"The only time this word has intruded in recent months in the campaign was in her, you know, self-deprecating remark at the convention. So for him to use the lipstick remark less than two weeks after she used it struck me as too much of a coincidence not to have been a deliberate attack," Rove told "FOX News Sunday."

The ex-White House deputy chief of staff also said Obama is fair in suggesting that McCain is a longtime Washington insider - since McCain has been in Congress since 1982 - but went over the line in attacking the Republican candidate as out of touch because he doesn't send e-mail or use a computer.

Without specifying, Rove said McCain's campaign has also gone "one step too far" in some of its ads by attributing to Obama some criticisms that don't meet "the 100-percent-truth test."

Rove said that the campaigns don't have to tell 100 percent of the tale when trying to score points but they do have to be careful about claims that are flat out wrong.

Obama's campaign responded to the Rove interviewing by saying if Rove calls McCain's ads over the top, it must be true.